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CHAPTER 12: LEADERSHIP POWER AND INFLUENCE 369
Interdepartmental Dependency
One key source of leader power in many organizations is interdepartmental de-
pendency. Materials, resources, and information may fl ow between departments
in one direction. In such cases, leaders in the department receiving resources will
have less power than those in the department that provides them. For example,
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consider the case of leaders at a cigarette factory. One might expect that the pro-
duction department would be more powerful than the maintenance department,
but this was not the case in a cigarette plant near Paris. The production of ciga-
rettes was a routine process. The machinery was automated. On the other hand,
maintenance department workers and their leaders were responsible for repair of
the automated machinery, which was a complex task, and they had many years
of experience. Because the maintenance department had the ability to fi x unpre-
dictable assembly-line breakdowns, production managers became dependent on
maintenance, and maintenance leaders called the shots about machine repair and
assembly line maintenance.
Control over Information
Despite the trend toward empowerment and broader information-sharing, the
fact remains that some people will almost always have access to more informa-
tion than others. Control over information—which involves both access to in-
formation and control over how and to whom it is distributed—is an important
source of power for leaders. Consider the example of Jay S. Sidhu, an émigré
from India who has served as chief executive of Sovereign Bancorp for more than
15 years. Sidhu has negotiated more than 27 acquisitions that both transformed
the troubled savings and loan into a major regional bank as well as increased his
own power over shareholders and board members. In the most recent acquisition,
Sidhu structured the deal in such a way that it diluted the power of investors who
have been critical of the top leader and want more control. Insiders say Sidhu
often withholds information from the board or waits until the last minute to brief
them in order to accomplish his objectives. 40
Most leaders recognize that information is a primary business resource and
that by controlling what information is collected, how it is in-
terpreted, and how it is shared, they can infl uence how decisions
As a leader, you can gain power by helping
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are made. To some extent, access to information is determined Action Memo
by a person’s position in the organization. Top leaders typically the organization deal with strategic
have access to more information than do lower-level supervisors or contingencies. You can use information
other employees. They can release information selectively to infl u- to shape decisions and actions, strive to
ence others and shape actions and decisions. However, control over become involved in the central activities of
information can also be a source of power for lower-level leaders the organization, and stay alert to ways you
and employees. Employees who have exclusive access to information can help the organization cope with critical
needed by leaders to make decisions gain power as a result. For ex-
ample, top executives may be dependent on the production manager uncertainties.
for analyzing and interpreting complex operations data.
Organizational Centrality

Centrality reflects a leader’s or a department’s role in the primary activity of an orga- Centrality
Centrality
a leader’s or a department’s
nization. One measure of centrality is the extent to which the work of the leader’s a leader’s or a department’s
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role in the primary activity of an
role in the primary activity of an

department affects the final output of the organization. At a company such as Intel, organization
organization
which is heavily technology-oriented, engineers have a high degree of power because
the organization depends on them to maintain the technical superiority of its prod-
ucts. In contrast, engineers at a company such as Procter & Gamble or Kimberly-
Clark, where marketing is the name of the game, have a lower degree of power. In
these organizations, marketers are typically the most powerful group of employees. 43